The present invention relates to a device permitting the tight connection of two confinement enclosures, in order to transfer products, materials or equipment between said enclosures, whilst maintaining their confinement with respect to the external atmosphere.
Devices of this type are used in numerous industrial fields and in research, whenever it is necessary to isolate a given zone within a confinement enclosure, either due to the dangerous or contaminating nature of the atmosphere or products contained in this zone, or because the sterile atmosphere contained in said zone could be contaminated by the ambient air. Such situations more particularly occure in the nuclear, pharmaceutical and medical fields.
French Pat. No. 2040616 illustrates a tight double door transfer device formed by two doors, which close two openings respectively formed in each of the enclosures, within a flange integral with the wall of the corresponding enclosure. The doors and flanges are constructed in such a way that with the flanges engaged on one another, the two doors can be joined to form a double door, whose opening links the internal volumes of each of the enclosures. These devices also have annular sealing joints or gaskets respectively mounted on the door of one of the enclosures and on the flange of the other enclosure. These joints are positioned in such a way that the putting into operation of the device takes place without the external atmoshere trapped between the two doors communicating with the internal atmosphere of the enclosures and without the opening of the double door having the effect of breaking the seal between the internal atmosphere of the enclosures and the external atmosphere.
In the existing connecting devices and as illustrated by the aforementioned patent, the closing of each of the doors is usually carried out by a bayonet mechanism. Such a mechanism imposes a rotation of the doors both during there opening and during there closing. During at least part of this rotation, the annular sealing joints rub against the metal surface to which they are normally applied when the doors are closed. As the material forming the joints is an elastomer material, this rubbing has the effect of damaging the surface and consequently the seal. These disadvantages are increased when the device is subject to systematic handlings, as is particularly the case when it is inserted in an installation requiring frequent manipulations.